Rochester, N.Y., May 30, 2018—Gail Albert Halaban: Out My Window will be on view at the George Eastman Museum beginning July 7. The exhibition will include artist Gail Albert Halaban’s photographs from the earliest to the most recent phases of her project, which until now has been seen only as discrete bodies of work from New York and Paris. This show features images made in cities all over the world, including Buenos Aires, Istanbul, New York, Paris, Rome, Seoul, Utrecht, and Venice, and showcases what urban neighbors see when they look across the street.
Although modern technology has made the world seem smaller, the ease of communicating with distant or unfamiliar individuals may make it too easy to ignore those physically closest to us. Albert Halaban’s photographic project, Out My Window, counters this tendency by using photography as a means of social engagement. The project began in 2007, two years after she moved from Los Angeles to New York. In response to the loneliness and isolation she felt in spite of the dense urban population surrounding her, she conceived a photographic series that would require her to connect and collaborate with her neighbors. The process starts with Albert Halaban explaining her work to potential participants and asking for their involvement. If they agree, she facilitates communication between neighbors and arranges to photograph one from the window of the other.
“The windows are fragile borders between the familiar and the unknown, between the rushing noises of the city and the timeless quiet of private lives. Set within the context of rising city populations and a global construction boom, the photographs present a portrait of how strangers live amongst strangers and the challenges of creating communities, relationships, and areas of privacy,” said Albert Halaban.
By encouraging a fresh, creative look at people across the street, Out My Window reiterates the vital role of human connection at a time when we conduct an ever‑increasing part of our social lives online. After more than ten years working on this project, Albert Halaban has discovered that despite its best efforts, social media has not changed us. She adds, “I found that nothing substitutes for connecting to the person across the way. There is still nothing more interesting, more profound, more dazzling for more people than what goes on behind a windowpane.”
Albert Halaban will be at the Eastman Museum for a conversation with curator Lisa Hostetler in the exhibition gallery on Friday, July 6, at 6 p.m. Afterwards, visitors will be invited to interact with Albert Halaban as they direct a camera in another location to make a photograph that they can take home with them. Hostetler will also lead gallery tours of the exhibition on Saturday, September 8, and Friday, November 16, both at 1 p.m.
This exhibition will remain on view through January 1, 2019, and is supported in part by the Rubens Family Foundation.
About the George Eastman Museum
Founded in 1947, the George Eastman Museum is the world’s oldest photography museum and one of the largest film archives in the United States, located on the historic Rochester estate of entrepreneur and philanthropist George Eastman, the pioneer of popular photography. Its holdings comprise more than 400,000 photographs, 28,000 motion picture films, the world’s preeminent collection of photographic and cinematographic technology, one of the leading libraries of books related to photography and cinema, and extensive holdings of documents and other objects related to George Eastman. As a research and teaching institution, the Eastman Museum has an active publishing program and, through its two joint master’s degree programs with the University of Rochester, makes critical contributions to film preservation and to photographic preservation and collections management. For more information, visit eastman.org.
